Late sister Justina Iipinge A CATHOLIC nun was among the six people who lost their lives when two cars collided head-on between Onhokolo and Ombafi on Saturday night. Sister Justina Iipinge (32), originally from Okando village in the Omusati region, was staying at the Etaka/Epalela Roman Catholic sub-station. Sister Maria Paulus from Oshikuku, who heads the transport division of the Benedictine Sisters of Oshikuku, said the late sister Iipinge was stationed at the St Anselm Roman Catholic sub-station at Etaka/Epalela near Ruacana, where she headed a vegetable and fruit project. Paulus said Iipinge, who just completed her last vows earlier this year, was a hardworking and dedicated young sister. “We lost a hardworking, peaceful and dedicated sister who was never selfish and had assisted everyone equally,” she said. “Our agricultural project at Etaka was flourishing because of her, not to speak about the spiritual work at the mission. It will be very difficult to fill the gap left by her. We are all looking up and praying to our Almighty to give us a person like sister Iita again. She was wonderful; someone who cared about everybody, and she obeyed her vows,” Paulus added. Hours before her death on Saturday, Iita brought a lot of vegetables to Oshikuku and the surrounding areas, where she sold them to the community before she went to visit her mother at Okando village. Unfortunately, her mother was not at home. “I think, without knowing, that she went to say 'bye' to her mother, but her mother was not at home at the time,” Paulus said. Teofilia Gabriel, one of Iipinge's aunts, said “we gave her to the church to serve God, and she died while serving God's people”. Text and Image shared from The Namibian

One day, drawing near to the city of Jericho, Jesus wrought the miracle of returning sight to a blind man who was begging on the roadside (cf. Luke 18:35-43). Today we want to discern the meaning of this sign, because it also touches us directly. The evangelist Luke says the blind man was sitting by the roadside begging (cf. v. 35). A blind man at that time – but also up to not too long ago – could only live from alms. The figure of this blind man represents many persons who, also today, find themselves marginalized because of a physical or other sort of disadvantage. He is separated from the crowd; he is sitting there while busy people pass by, absorbed in their own thoughts and in many things … And the road, which could be a place of encounter, is for him, instead, a place of solitude. Such a crowd passes by … and he is alone.

The image of a marginalized individual is sad, especially in the background of the city of Jericho, the splendid and luxuriant oasis in the desert. We know, in fact, that it was Jericho that the people of Israel reached at the end of their long exodus from Egypt: that city represents the entrance door to the Promised Land. We recall the words that Moses pronounced in that circumstance: “If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother …. For the poor will never cease out of theland; therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land” (Deuteronomy 15:7.11). The contrast between this recommendation of God’s Law and the situation described in the Gospel is striking: while the blind man cried out, invoking Jesus, people rebuked him to silence him, as if he didn’t have the right to speak. They had no compassion for him; instead, his shouting annoyed them. How often we are annoyed, when we see so many people on the road – needy, sick people who have nothing to eat. How often we are annoyed when we find ourselves before so many refugees. It’s a temptation we all have – I too! It’s because of this that the Word of God admonishes us, reminding us that indifference and hostility render us blind and deaf, they impede our seeing our brothers and do not allow us to recognize the Lord in them – indifference and hostility. And sometimes this indifference and hostility become also aggression and insult: “but throw all these out!”; “put them somewhere else!” This aggression is what the people did when the blind man cried out: but you, go away, go on, don’t speak, don’t shout.”

We note an interesting particular. The evangelist says that someone in the crowd explained to the blind man the reason all those people had gathered, saying: “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by!” (v. 37). Jesus’ passing by is indicated with the same verb with which the Book of Exodus speaks of the passing of the exterminating Angel, who saves the Israelites in the land of Egypt (cf. Exodus 12:23). It is the “passing” of Easter, the beginning of the liberation: when Jesus passes by there is always liberation, there is always salvation! Therefore, for the blind man, it was as if his Easter was announced. Without allowing himself to be intimidated, the blind man cries out more times to Jesus, recognizing Him as the Son of David, the awaited Messiah that, according to the prophet Isaiah, opened the eyes of the blind (cf. Isaiah 35:5). In contrast to the crowd, this blind man sees with the eyes of faith. Thanks to it, his supplication has a powerful efficacy. In fact, on hearing him, “Jesus stopped, and commanded that he be brought to Him” (v. 40). By doing so, Jesus “takes the blind man away form the roadside and puts him at the center of the attention of His disciples and of the crowd. We also think when we have been in awful situations, including situations of sin, how it was in fact Jesus who took us by the hand away from the roadside and gave us salvation. Realized thus is a twofold passage. First: the people had proclaimed good news to the blind man, but they didn’t want to have anything to do with him; now Jesus obliges them all to be aware that the good news implies putting at the center of one’s path the one who was excluded from it. Second: in his turn, the blind man could not see, but his faith opened the way of salvation, and he finds himself amidst all those who had stopped on the road to see Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord’s passing is an encounter of mercy that unites everything around Him to enable us to recognize one who is in need of help and of consolation. Jesus also passes by in your Life; and when Jesus passes, and I realize it, it is an invitation to draw near to Him, to be better, to be a better Christian, to follow Jesus.

Jesus turns to the blind man and asks him: “What do you want me to do for you?”(v. 41). These words of Jesus are striking: the Son of God is now before the blind man as a humble servant. He, Jesus, God, says: “But what do you want me to do for you? How do you want me to serve you?” God makes Himself a servant of the sinful man. And the blind man answers Jesus, no longer calling him “Son of David,” but “Lord,” the title that since the beginning the Church has applied to the Risen Jesus. The blind man asks that he might see again, and his desire is heard: “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well” (v. 42). He showed his faith invoking Jesus and wanting absolutely to meet Him, and this brought him the gift of salvation. Thanks to his faith, he can now see and, above all, he feels that he is loved by Jesus.

Therefore, the account ends by stating that the blind man “followed Him, glorifying God” (v. 43): he becomes a disciple. From a beggar to a disciple: this is also our path. We are all beggars, all of us. We are always in need of salvation. And all of us, should take this step every day: from beggars to disciples. And so, the blind man sets out behind the Lord and begins to be part of His community. He whom they wanted to silence, now witnesses in a loud voice his encounter with Jesus of Nazareth, and “all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God” (v. 43). A second miracle happens: what happened to the blind man makes it so that the people also finally see. The same light illumines them all, uniting them in a prayer of praise. So Jesus pours out His mercy upon all those He meets: He calls them, brings them to come to Him, gathers them, heals and enlightens them, creating a new people that celebrates the wonders of His merciful love. Let us also allow ourselves to be called by Jesus, and let us be healed by Jesus, forgiven by Jesus, and let us go behind Jesus praising God. So be it!

[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]

Greeting in Italian

a cordial welcome to the Italian-speaking pilgrims. I am happy to receive the new priests of the Diocese of Brescia and the seminarians of the Focolare Movement. I exhort you to be ever more conformed to Christ the Good Shepherd, witnessing His merciful heart.

I greet the faithful of some Italian dioceses, accompanied by their respective Pastors: Albenga-Imperia, Carpi, Chioggia, Oristano, Saluzzo and San Miniato. I wish you a Jubilee pilgrimage rich in spiritual fruits for your good and for that of your ecclesial communities.

A particular greeting goes to young people, the sick and newlyweds. Dear young people, especially you youngsters of the Youthful Epicenter of San Severo and those of the Penal Institute of Airola, may the Lord be your interior Teacher who guides you constantly on the ways of goodness. Dear sick, offer your suffering to Christ crucified to cooperate in the redemption of the world. And you, dear newlyweds, be aware of the irreplaceable mission of love to which your marriage commits you.

Born in 1579 of humble parents at Pibrac, a village about ten miles from Toulouse; died in her native place in 1601. From her birth she seemed marked out for suffering; she came into the world with a deformed hand and the disease ofscrofula, and, while yet an infant, lost her mother. Her father soon married again, but his second wife treated Germaine with much cruelty. Under pretence of saving the other children from the contagion of scrofula she persuaded the father to keep Germaine away from the homestead, and thus the child was employed almost from infancy as a shepherdess. When she returned at night, her bed was in the stable or on a litter of vine branches in a garret. In this hard school Germaine learned early to practise humility and patience. She was gifted with a marvellous sense of the presence of God and of spiritual things, so that her lonely life became to her a source of light and blessing. To poverty, bodily infirmity, the rigours of the seasons, the lack of affection from those in her own home, she added voluntary mortifications and austerities, making bread and water her daily food. Her love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and for His Virgin Mother presaged the saint. She assisted daily at the Holy Sacrifice; when the bell rang, she fixed her sheep-hook or distaff in the ground, and left her flocks to the care of Providence while she heard Mass. Although the pasture was on the border of a forest infested with wolves, no harm ever came to her flocks.She is said to have practised many austerities as a reparation for the sacrileges perpetrated by heretics in the neighbouring churches. She frequented the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and it was observed that her piety increased on the approach of every feast of Our Lady. The Rosary was her only book, and her devotion to the Angelus was so great that she used to fall on her knees at the first sound of the bell, even though she heard it when crossing a stream. Whenever she could do so, she assembled the children of the village around her and sought to instil into their minds the love of Jesus and Mary. The villagers were inclined at first to treat her piety with mild derision, until certain signs of God's signal favour made her an object of reverence and awe. In repairing to the village church she had to cross a stream. The ford in winter, after heavy rains or the melting of snow, was at times impassable. On several occasions the swollen waters were seen to open and afford her a passage without wetting her garments.Notwithstanding her poverty she found means to help the poor by sharing with them her allowance of bread. Her father at last came to a sense of his duty, forbade her stepmother henceforth to treat her harshly, and wished to give her a place in the home with the other children, but she begged to be allowed to remain in thehumbler position. At this point, when men were beginning to realize the beauty of her life, God called her to Himself. One morning in the early summer of 1601, her father finding that she had not risen at the usual hour went to call her; he found her dead on her pallet of vine-twigs. She was then twenty-two years of age.

Her remains were buried in the parish church of Pibrac in front of the pulpit. In 1644, when the grave was opened to receive one of her relatives, the body of Germaine was discovered fresh and perfectly preserved, and miraculously raised almost to the level of the floor of the church. It was exposed for public view near the pulpit, until a noble lady, the wife of François de Beauregard, presented as a thanks-offering a casket of lead to hold the remains. She had been cured of a malignant and incurable ulcer in the breast, and her infant son whose life was despaired of was restored to health on her seeking the intercession of Germaine. This was the first of a long series of wonderful cures wrought at her relics. The leaden casket was placed in the sacristy, and in 1661 and 1700 the remains were viewed and found fresh and intact by the vicars-general of Toulouse, who have left testamentary depositions of the fact. Expert medical evidence deposed that the body had not been embalmed, and experimental tests showed that the preservation was not due to any property inherent in the soil. In 1700 a movement was begun to procure the beatification of Germaine, but it fell through owing to accidental causes. In 1793 the casket was desecrated by a revolutionary tinsmith, named Toulza, who with three accomplices took out the remains and buried them in the sacristy, throwing quick-lime and water on them. After the Revolution, her body was found to be still intact save where the quick-lime had done its work.

The private veneration of Germaine had continued from the original finding of the body in 1644, supported and encouraged by numerous cures and miracles. The cause of beatification was resumed in 1850. The documents attested more than 400 miracles or extraordinary graces, and thirty postulatory letters from archbishops and bishops in France besought the beatification from the Holy See. The miracles attested were cures of every kind (of blindness, congenital and resulting from disease, of hip and spinal disease), besides the multiplication of food for the distressed community of the Good Shepherd at Bourges in 1845. On 7 May, 1854, Pius IX proclaimed her beatification, and on 29 June, 1867, placed her on the canon of virgin saints. Her feast is kept in the Diocese of Toulouse on 15 June. She is represented in art with a shepherd's crook or with a distaff; with a watchdog, or a sheep; or with flowers in her apron.Text from the Catholic Encyclopedia

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary TimeLectionary: 367

Video added at 10am

Reading 12 KGS 2:1, 6-14

When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind,he and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here;the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.”“As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live,I will not leave you,” Elisha replied.And so the two went on together.Fifty of the guild prophets followed andwhen the two stopped at the Jordan,they stood facing them at a distance.Elijah took his mantle, rolled it upand struck the water, which divided,and both crossed over on dry ground.

When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha,“Ask for whatever I may do for you, before I am taken from you.”Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of your spirit.”“You have asked something that is not easy,” Elijah replied.“Still, if you see me taken up from you,your wish will be granted; otherwise not.”As they walked on conversing,a flaming chariot and flaming horses came between them,and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.When Elisha saw it happen he cried out,“My father! my father! Israel’s chariots and drivers!”But when he could no longer see him,Elisha gripped his own garment and tore it in two.

Then he picked up Elijah’s mantle that had fallen from him,and went back and stood at the bank of the Jordan.Wielding the mantle that had fallen from Elijah,Elisha struck the water in his turn and said,“Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?”When Elisha struck the water it divided and he crossed over.

Responsorial PsalmPS 31:20, 21, 24

R. (25) Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.How great is the goodness, O LORD,which you have in store for those who fear you,And which, toward those who take refuge in you,you show in the sight of the children of men.R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.You hide them in the shelter of your presencefrom the plottings of men;You screen them within your abodefrom the strife of tongues.R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.Love the LORD, all you his faithful ones!The LORD keeps those who are constant,but more than requites those who act proudly.R. Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.

AlleluiaJN 14:23

GospelMT 6:1-6, 16-18

Jesus said to his disciples:“Take care not to perform righteous deedsin order that people may see them;otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you,as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streetsto win the praise of others.Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.But when you give alms,do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,so that your almsgiving may be secret.And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street cornersso that others may see them.Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door,and pray to your Father in secret.And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.They neglect their appearance,so that they may appear to others to be fasting.Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,so that you may not appear to others to be fasting,except to your Father who is hidden.And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

According to the legend, martyrs under Diocletian; feast, 15 June. The earliest testimony for their veneration is offered by the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 78: "In Sicilia, Viti, Modesti et Crescentiae"). The fact that the note is in the three most important manuscripts proves that it was also in the common exemplar of these, which appeared in the fifth century. The same Martyrologium has under the same day another Vitus at the head of a list of nine martyrs, with the statement of the place, "In Lucania", that is, in the Roman province of that name in Southern Italy between the Tuscan Sea and the Gulf of Taranto. It is easily possible that the same martyr Vitus in both cases, because only the name of a territory is given, not of a city, as the place where the martyr was venerated. This testimony to the public veneration of the three saints in the fifth century proves positively that they are historical martyrs. There are, nevertheless, no historical accounts of them, nor of the time or the details of their martyrdom. During the sixth and seventh centuries a purely legendary narrative of their martyrdom appeared which was based upon other legends, especially on the legend of Poitus, and ornamented with accounts of fantastic miracles. It still exists in various versions, but has no historical value.

According to this legend Vitus was a boy seven years of age (other versions make him twelve years old), the son of a pagan senator of Lucania. During the era of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximilian, his father sought in every way, including various forms of torture, to make him apostatize. But he remained steadfast, and God aided him in a wonderful manner. He fled with his tutor Modestus in a boat to Lucania. From Lucania he was taken to Rome to drive out a demon which had taken possession of a son of the Emperor Diocletian. This he did, and yet, because he remained steadfast in the Christian Faith, he was tortured together with his tutor Modestus and his nurse Crescentia. By a miracle an angel brought back the martyrs to Lucania, where they died from the tortures they had endured. Three days later Vitus appeared to a distinguished matron namedFlorentia, who then found the bodies and buried them in the spot where they were. It is evident that the author of the legend has connected in his invention three saints who apparently suffered death in Lucania, and were first venerated there. The veneration of the martyrs spread rapidly in Southern Italy and Sicily, as is shown by the note in the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum". Pope Gregory the Great mentions a monastery dedicated to Vitus in Sicily ("Epist.", I, xlviii, P.L., LXXXVII, 511). The veneration of Vitus, the chief saint of the group, also appeared very early at Rome. Pope Gelasius (492-496) mentions a shrine dedicated to him (Jaffé, "Reg. Rom. Pont.", 2nd ed., I, 6 79), and at Rome in the seventh century the chapel of a deaconry was dedicated to him ("Liber Pont.", ed. Duchesne, I, 470 sq.). In the eighth century it is said that relics of St. Vitus were brought to the monastery of St-Denis by Abbot Fulrad. They were later presented to Abbot Warin of Corvey in Germany, who solemnly transferred them to this abbey in 836. From Corvey the veneration of St. Vitus spread throughout Westphalia and in the districts of eastern and northern Germany. St. Vitus is appealed to, above all, against epilepsy, which is called St. Vitus's Dance, and he is one of the Fourteen Martyrs who give aid in times of trouble. He is represented near a kettle of boiling oil, because according to the legend he was thrown into such a kettle, but escaped miraculously. The feast of the three saints was adopted in the historical Martyrologies of the early Middle Ages and is also recorded in the present Roman Martyrology on 15 June. Text from the Catholic Encyclopedia